


Some Blue December

by metaphasia



Category: Wizards of Waverly Place
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 01:51:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1100998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/metaphasia/pseuds/metaphasia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Justin and Alex have always had their own private world. They celebrate their own private Christmas tradition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Some Blue December

**Author's Note:**

  * For [becka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/becka/gifts).



As is traditional, Justin is the last one his parents check in on on Christmas Eve before they go to bed.  
As is traditional, Justin waits until his parents have made it to their room and he can no longer hear them moving around.  
As is traditional, Justin waits another ten minutes before he finally gets up out of bed and pads his way to his door. There, he pauses for a few seconds, straining his ears for any hint of sound, to make sure he hasn't alerted anyone, before he opens his door and stealthily walks down the hall.  
Normally, Justin wouldn't break the rules and sneak out of his room, but this is a tradition.  
He pauses in front of the door to the room next to his, taps on it twice in rapid succession, and waits the few seconds for Alex to open the door. Then the two eldest Russo children move in unison down the hallway and stairs, carefully avoiding stepping on the two stairs that creak.  
Alex goes first, many long years of sneaking out of the house serving as perfect practice for letting her know exactly where to position her feet; Justin follows in her footsteps, many long years of memorizing information serving as perfect practice for mimicking her movements; neither of them make any noise.  
They head through the silent apartment, lit only by the incandescent glow of the Christmas tree. When they reach the door to the terrace, Alex pulls the can of WD-40 out of her pocket and sprays the squeaky hinges, making sure they don't alert anyone when they walk outside.  
Justin closes the door behind him and moves into the corner of the terrace, behind the recliner, as Alex pulls out the pillows and blankets they hid earlier in the day, to insulate them against the cold brick of the wall and the hard tile of the floor.

\---

Like many other families, Jerry and Theresa had taught their children to believe in Santa Claus when they were young. Unlike other families, with the knowledge that magic was real, their children had actually believed in the possibility of flying reindeer and delivering presents to millions of children in a single night. When Gigi mocked Alex in the second grade for still believing in Santa Claus, because only children still believed in Santa, Alex came home distraught. She refused to come out of her room for the entire afternoon. It was Justin who finally went in to her room when she failed to come down to dinner to find out what the problem was. It was Justin who assured her that Santa could indeed be real, and that just because mortals didn't believe in him, didn't mean that he didn't exist. And it was Justin, who, when Alex took his reassurances as a challenge, accidentally planted the idea in Alex's head of catching Santa in the act when he visited their house. That year, Alex snuck out of her room in order to prove whether or not Santa existed. Justin had been in bed when she did, but since she had not yet been as adept at the arts of stealth as she would later become, he heard her as she made her way down the hallway. He had also snuck out of his room that night to join her and make sure that she didn't get caught by their parents. There had been a frantic scramble around the furniture in the living room in order to avoid detection, and they had eventually wound up having to duck out to the terrace, crouching behind the recliners there, when they almost got cornered, but they had been successful in avoiding detection. However, they hadn't seen any proof of Santa.  
It was Justin who taught Alex that just because they didn't see Santa Claus that year, didn't mean that he didn't exist, just that they had failed in finding him.  
It was Justin's fault that since then, every year, they had come out to camp in the cold, hoping to catch some sign of the elusive figure, never with any luck.

\---

Though it had been a cold winter, even for New York City, there had yet to be any snow. Despite the lack of precipitation, it was below freezing, and the blankets the two were under felt as thin as paper under the winds at their elevation. Under the covers, they snuggle closer together, trying to slow the chill from permeating their bodies. They sit in silence, keeping a watch out for any motion inside, but hold still, not disturbing the night.  
The hours pass slowly. Their parents come down the stairs at two in the morning, having taken a brief nap to make sure the kids have fallen asleep, to lay the presents out under the tree. Justin and Alex hold their breath when their parents come down the stairs, and tense up beneath the sheets, nervous of getting caught. Jerry and Theresa head back to their room an hour later, and Justin and Alex relax a little. It starts snowing at four; Justin wraps his arm around Alex's back, and she drops her head into the crook of his neck and twines her arms around his waist.

They'll head back in when the sun rises and the night is officially over, getting back to their rooms just in time for Max to wake them up, but for now there's nowhere either of them would rather be. The glow of the city that lights up the falling flakes of snow like fireflies; the warm press where their bodies touch, that doesn't quite reach their ears; the sound of their breathing drowning out all the noises of the city; the feeling of the other's heart beating swiftly besides their own.

At nine, they've finished opening their gifts, and Theresa is in the kitchen cooking breakfast while Max and Jerry are trying to assemble the complex toy that Max got that year. Alex and Justin both head upstairs to change their clothes.

Justin is on his way back downstairs when a hand pops out of Alex's room and yanks him in. He looks around bewildered, but her only response is to point up at her ceiling, where she hung a sprig of mistletoe earlier.


End file.
